'Game of Thrones' season 5 episodes leak online

Los Angeles: HBO's 'Game of Thrones', which is already one of the most pirated shows, suffered another leak with first three episodes landing online on the eve of the season five premiere.

Kit Harington plays Jon Snow in 'Game of Thrones'. Pic/Santa Banta

Addressing the leak and the measures the network is taking, HBO said, "Sadly, it seems the leaked four episodes ofthe upcoming season of Game of Thrones originated from within a group approved by HBO to receive them. We're actively assessing how this breach occurred."

The highly anticipated season five has 10-episode but intial episodes have surfaced on torrent sites in standard definition. According to TorrentFreak, the episodes were downloaded more than 100,000 within the first 3 hours,reported Deadline.

It appears that the sources are screeners sent out by HBO but the network likely is still working on tracing the originof the illegal upload.

HBO is making 'Game Of Thrones' available to non-subscribers via HBO Now and Sling TV and is premiering theshow simultaneously in 170 countries to discourage fans from taking the piracy route.